What kind of M.2 to PCIe adapter will I need to use 2 Optane M10 modules in RAID0?

[generalkidd]

Since the 16 GB Optane M10 modules are very cheap now on sites like eBay, I'm looking to get 2 of them to use in RAID0 as a high speed scratch disk. My motherboard doesn't have anymore free M.2 slots so I'd need a PCIe adapter. I found a couple that look suitable but I'm unsure which one is the proper one to use in this case. The PCIe connectors both have are very different and I can't tell which is the correct one for this use case. Here are two examples I've found:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/M-2-NGFF-t...ual-SSD-PCI-Express-Adapter-Card/303194134086
https://www.ebay.com/itm/m2-PCIe-SS...-x4/223218282373?_trksid=p2485497.m4902.l9144

The 1st one appears to just be a standard PCIe x4 connector but the 2nd one is weird and looks like two PCIe x4 connectors in an x16 form factor. So that's why I'm confused which one to get if I want to use 2 Optane modules in a RAID0 SSD.

 

[Mussels]

both of those have 1x NVME and 1x SATA

You'll need a card that supports RAID, and supports two NVME - if its got a sata port its probably the wrong kind.

 

[newtekie1]

You want something like this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/ASUS-Hyper...orts-4-NVMe-M-2/133235147214?epid=23030160283

Though it doesn't work with every motherboard. You have to make sure your motherboard supports PCI-E x16 port bifurcation.

 

[generalkidd]

You want something like this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/ASUS-Hyper...orts-4-NVMe-M-2/133235147214?epid=23030160283

Though it doesn't work with every motherboard. You have to make sure your motherboard supports PCI-E x16 port bifurcation.

Thanks I'll check that one out, price still looks pretty reasonable. I'm not sure if my ASUS Prime B360M motherboard supports x16 bifurcation specifically but I know it does support bifurcation for the Intel Optane H10 module which is an M.2 SSD with a 32 GB Optane module+512 GB QLC SSD which is currently used as my main drive and does require bifurcation. I don't know if that automatically means it also supports up to x16 bifurcation though.

 

[newtekie1]

Thanks I'll check that one out, price still looks pretty reasonable. I'm not sure if my ASUS Prime B360M motherboard supports x16 bifurcation specifically but I know it does support bifurcation for the Intel Optane H10 module which is an M.2 SSD with a 32 GB Optane module+512 GB QLC SSD which is currently used as my main drive and does require bifurcation. I don't know if that automatically means it also supports up to x16 bifurcation though.

I assume you plan to use the onboard graphics?

You might be better off grabbing two of these: https://smile.amazon.com/MZHOU-M-Key-NVME-Mount-Adapter/dp/B082D6RF6S/

Then tossing them in your lower two PCI-E x1 slots with a 16GB Optane drive in each.

 

[generalkidd]

I assume you plan to use the onboard graphics?

You might be better off grabbing two of these: https://smile.amazon.com/MZHOU-M-Key-NVME-Mount-Adapter/dp/B082D6RF6S/

Then tossing them in your lower two PCI-E x1 slots with a 16GB Optane drive in each.

Ohh yeah you're right actually, I forgot my mobo only has 1 PCIe x16 slot. In that case yeah the two PCIe x1 slots are free. I should still be able to create a software RAID0 drive from two PCIe x1 slots right?

 

[newtekie1]

Ohh yeah you're right actually, I forgot my mobo only has 1 PCIe x16 slot. In that case yeah the two PCIe x1 slots are free. I should still be able to create a software RAID0 drive from two PCIe x1 slots right?

Yep. The drive will show up in the OS and you can do whatever you want with them.

 

[generalkidd]

Yep. The drive will show up in the OS and you can do whatever you want with them.

Awesome thanks! I'll go ahead and order all that soon. I do have one more question though. Since these are x1 slots, are they going to negatively impact the speed of the Optane SSDs a lot? I think Optane M.2 modules are normally supposed to run in x2 or x4 speeds.

 

[Mussels]

Edit: my advice was wrong, optane isnt all that fast.
reads may be capped a little, writes wont be.

 

[newtekie1]

Awesome thanks! I'll go ahead and order all that soon. I do have one more question though. Since these are x1 slots, are they going to negatively impact the speed of the Optane SSDs a lot? I think Optane M.2 modules are normally supposed to run in x2 or x4 speeds.

While they run at PCI-E x2 normally, the 16GB Optane drives can't actually saturate a PCI-E x1 link. Their maximum read speed is about 900MB/s and their maximum write speed is only like 145MB/s. The PCI-E x1 slots on your motherboard can do 985MB/s both directions.

 

[generalkidd]

Thanks everyone! That's very reassuring then with the speeds. I'll probably go ahead and order all the parts soon. I'm a little surprised the Optane memory isn't as fast as I thought, I think most modern NAND-based NVME SSD's are faster now lol. But considering this is a PCIe x1 slot anyways the 16 GB Optane is about as good as I can get.

 

[Ferrum Master]

Optane is awesome in one important aspect.

It performs same even when full. It does not affect performance, no TRIM needed. It is so stable and bullet proof.

Those slower writes are not felt in real world situation. The maximum sequential read speeds over 3000 are just for the epeen. They matter not. The controller has exceptionally low latency and in that discipline it surpasses any budget offering, especially DRAMless.

I also have the smaller 32GB(win7 dual boot for debugging resides there) one and the the larger 280GB AIC. I really love the fact it can be full ie utilized to the max and it simply works.

 

[newtekie1]

The maximum sequential read speeds over 3000 are just for the epeen.

The smaller M10 modules don't have anywhere near that in read speeds. They top out at about 1450MB/s. When it comes to sequential read/write they aren't really any better than a traditional NVMe SSD these days. Where they shine, as you pointed out, is the insanely low latency. Which makes them great for their intended purpose as cache drives for slower SATA based drives(mainly hard drives).

 

[EarthDog]

Optane...I'm confused... that isnt storage like a ssd, is it? I thought it is a cache? Why would you R0 cache? That's possible?

The smaller M10 modules don't have anywhere near that in read speeds. They top out at about 1450MB/s. When it comes to sequential read/write they aren't really any better than a traditional NVMe SSD these days. Where they shine, as you pointed out, is the insanely low latency. Which makes them great for their intended purpose as cache drives for slower SATA based drives(mainly hard drives).

ha..this!

 

[newtekie1]

Optane...I'm confused... that isnt storage like a ssd, is it? I thought it is a cache? Why would you R0 cache? That's possible?

They are just normal NVMe SSDs. The cache "magic" is all software, there isn't anything special about the drives themselves as far as how they show up to the system.

 

[EarthDog]

They're just slow is all...

Being more serious, why not get some real M.2 PCIe NVMe SSDs and go to town instead of dealing with Optane drives?

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Thanks I'll check that one out, price still looks pretty reasonable. I'm not sure if my ASUS Prime B360M motherboard supports x16 bifurcation specifically but I know it does support bifurcation for the Intel Optane H10 module which is an M.2 SSD with a 32 GB Optane module+512 GB QLC SSD which is currently used as my main drive and does require bifurcation. I don't know if that automatically means it also supports up to x16 bifurcation though.

It's going to require you to disable an M2 port in all likelihood ,on my hero 7 it does.
This is because four drive's need 4 x4 slots ,two will need a full x8.
You would be better served with a cheap one drive to pciex adapter and no raid, but a bigger drive.
B350 has more limited pciex options so I don't think you will find raid 0 on small drive's easy or worth it.

Sorry I read just a bit, you have good advice already

 

[newtekie1]

They're just slow is all...

Being more serious, why not get some real M.2 PCIe NVMe SSDs and go to town instead of dealing with Optane drives?

It depends on what you consider slow. Their sequential read/write speeds are on the low side, but their random read/write(the more important number) is pretty fast. Of course those random read/writes is probably going to suffer when they are run in a software RAID.

 

[generalkidd]

They're just slow is all...

Being more serious, why not get some real M.2 PCIe NVMe SSDs and go to town instead of dealing with Optane drives?

My main purpose for using them is as a scratch disk for several projects I'm working on that could benefit from the high speed drives. I already have plenty of storage in the other M.2 slots on the motherboard so I figured I'd take advantage of the unused PCIe x1 slots and get some cheap Optane modules which go for like $10 on ebay for the 16 GB versions.